Zirconium oxide is a common material used in sorbent cartridges for sorbent dialysis. Zirconium oxide can remove phosphate ions, fluoride ions and other anions from spent dialysate, exchanging these ions for acetate or hydroxide anions. Known sorbent dialysis systems do not provide for a way to recharge the zirconium oxide present in a sorbent cartridge so the zirconium oxide can be reused for future dialysis sessions. Instead, known sorbent dialysis systems generally require the sorbent materials to be discarded and the sorbent cartridge replaced after each use. Although traditional sorbent cartridges can be broken down to extract the sorbent materials for recharging, the sorbent materials must be re-processed at a processing plant, and cannot be recharged by the dialysis machine, a recharging device, or an in-clinic apparatus. The exhausted sorbent materials must be transported to a processing plant, the sorbent cartridge disassembled and the sorbent materials recharged by the plant. At some point, a new cartridge must be manufactured and the recharged sorbent materials re-packaged into the cartridge and transported back to the dialysis clinic for use. Traditional cartridges also cannot isolate specific materials into compartments for recharging, and therefore, cannot be adapted to recharge expensive rechargeable sorbent materials such as zirconium oxide or zirconium phosphate, and dispose of less expensive materials such as urease, alumina, and/or activated carbon. Single- and limited-use sorbent cartridges drive up not only the unit cost of dialysis, but also the total cost of dialysis.
There is a need for systems and methods for recharging sorbent materials such as zirconium oxide for reuse. There is also a need for methods and systems for separating sorbent materials within a sorbent cartridge into single and multi-use modules that can facilitate recharging and reuse of at least one of the sorbent materials. There is a further need for systems and related methods whereby rechargeable sorbent materials can be separated into multi-use modules and single-use modules wherein non-rechargeable sorbent materials can optionally be in one or more separate modules. There is also a need for an apparatus that can facilitate recharging of multiple sorbent materials in separate modules, such as zirconium oxide and zirconium phosphate.